The effects of aided AAC interventions on AAC use, speech, and symbolic gestures.

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) service provision can be time-consuming, and it is important to ensure that the time invested in aided AAC interventions is worth the costs. As children who use AAC are multimodal communicators, it is important to understand the effects that aided AAC interventions may have not only on AAC use but also on other communication modes, including speech and symbolic gestures. Toward these ends, this article contains a review of commonly used AAC intervention techniques, a discussion of how use of these techniques affects aided AAC use, and an examination of the effect that AAC interventions have on other communication modes, including speech and various types of gestures.

Teaching Latino parents to support the multi-symbol message productions of their children who require AAC.

Many children who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) have difficulties shifting from the single- to multi-symbol stage of language development. Ensuring that children who use AAC receive evidence-based interventions to address this problem is critical. Furthermore, there has been little AAC treatment efficacy research to date that addresses the needs of multicultural populations, particularly those of Latino children who use AAC and their families.